The Valkyrie Star: Book 2 Friendship and Sacrifice
by jgames
Summary: Rita and Runt find them selves in Eugine, Oregon. There they meet up with a strange kitten named Ace and try to make sense out of the relentless humans chasing him. R&R please.
1. Chapter 1  Rebirth

**Animaniacs and the Valkyrie Star**

**Book Two – Friendship and Sacrifice**

_Disclaimer: _

_**Rita - **This author does not own any of the Animaniacs __characters, there likenesses therein nor there right. Any situations that happen to these characters is simply fictional and therefore... _

_**Runt - **Hey Rita, I'm hungry. Yah, definitely, definitely hungry. When do we eat?_

**Chapter 1 - ****Rebirth**_  
_

It was a cold winter night of February 16th. My name is Rita (a stray bluish-gray female house cat with the singing voice of an angel from heaven) and this is Runt (a dog that loyally follows me around and has an IQ of 17 or less.) We were traveling the snowy streets of Eugene, Oregon. It was a while since we had any food and we were starting to get weakened from our wandering, until I spotted a restaurant nearby. I knew I would have to be cunning to pick anything up from these humans, and I had to make sure that Runt was able to put something in his stomach as well. I decided on a plan, the first step was to provide a distraction, so I explained my brilliant plan to Runt. "Runt, I'm gonna sneak into the back of the restaurant and find us some food. All I need you to do is poke your head in there and bark." Runt didn't quite understand what I was trying to get at, but being not-so-quick on the uptake he barely gave it a thought and replied, "Ok, Rita." Then he waited for an employee to open the back door, and then he poked his head in and began to bark like crazy. "What, the..." the head chef cried out. "Don't let that dog in." He then added. And 3 other chefs made a break for Runt, who backed off away from the door and began letting the chefs chase him around the restaurant until I could snag some food. As the last chef bolted after Runt, I slipped in through my narrow time window and poked around the restaurant until I found some fresh cooked food on some serving plates. Then I quickly located the "Take home" cartons, filled one up as much as I could, located an open window and slipped out. Looking around for Runt, I soon spotted him running away from the restaurant and discreetly took the round-about way to safely meet up with my long-time friend. Both escaping that ordeal alive and unharmed, we located a spot to sit down and eat our stolen meal. I apparently was able to swipe a medium-rare sirloin steak for Runt and a side of fries and coleslaw. For myself, I had stolen a fresh piece of halibut and a baked potato with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and bacon bits. Obviously, everything I had stolen was off of multiple plates, but I didn't care. It was food and I was set on enjoying it.

"Good meal, Rita" Runt said to me after he finished the last of his coleslaw. "I couldn't have stolen it without you." I replied than stopped to think about my wording on that line. Something there just didn't seem to come out right. Oh well, it came out anyway. It was getting really late and dark out, so we decided to turn in for the night. However, we wouldn't get much sleep, after a few hours, I woke up to some nasty sounding growling noises. Apparently, we were found by a pack of wild dogs, and they weren't willing to use there "charm" to find their food. There were around four of them and they had us surrounded, and were closing in. "Runt, wake up..." I muttered to him out the side of my mouth. When he responded by shifting onto his back, I decided to get a little louder. I jumped on his stomach and shouted, "RUNT, GET UP OR WE'RE BOTH DEAD!" And with that, he jumped up with a start. When he noticed that we were in danger, he immediately got down in a defensive position and bore his teeth at our adversaries. He seemed to look around at either the wild dogs or at our surroundings, but I was in too much of a panic to tell witch. Suddenly, he quickly grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and tossed me into a nearby tree. Latching onto a branch, I was safe now from the dogs, but now I had to deal with being in the tree. (I hate being acrophobic) My fears were forgotten when I saw those four dogs completely overwhelming Runt. They jumped on him bit his legs and tore out chunks of his fur. They continued to maul him until I noticed a shadow swiftly moving toward us. It got closer and closer until, it landed in the center of the dogfight and begin to fling the wild dogs aside. When they landed, they got back up and charged right back at the shadow. The same result occurred, the dogs were flung aside, they charged back in, and were flung aside once again. This continued on for a while until the wild dogs became tired and just ran away. Then the shadow moved over Runt's lifeless body, me thinking the worst now, didn't want anything else to happen to my fallen comrade. So, I did the one thing I've never done before, I jumped out of the tree and landed on the ground. Then I ran up to Runt's body, and hissed at the shadowy man. His face was hidden by the darkness of the night and further hidden by the overhead lamp lights near the street. "Your friend may not live. Do you still want to protect him?" He asked. I just stood there hissing at him. All I could think about was protecting Runt. I knew he wouldn't survive the next few hours in his mangled condition, but I still had to protect him at all costs. With tears in my eyes, a lump in my throat and my heart breaking in to pieces, I just stood there protecting my best friend. "If you allow me to, I can save your companion." The shadowy man then said to me.

After hearing that, I didn't know what to think. Then I remember Dot telling me something about a man with a cloak healing her when she was injured. So, I let my guard down a little. He walked up slowly (so as to test the waters) and knelt down to Runt's body. As he did, the moonlight caught a part of his face, and I could see his icy blue eyes. I just stood there; ready to pounce if need be, although I could barely see through all of my tears. He slowly leaned forward and hovered over Runt for a short while then slowly folded his cloak over the body and his head. Then suddenly the whole figure began to glow a soft, pleasant green. The glowing mass then began to shrink to the size of Runt's body, and the glowing began to fade. When it was finished, Runt's body was completely healed and I could see him breathing, his side clearly rising up and down as he inhaled and exhaled. I heard Runt make a deep moaning sound and slowly turn around to look at me. My tears turned from tears of sorrow and loss to tears of joy and relief, and a small smile appeared on my face. I walked up to him, nuzzled my face into his neck and began to sob silently. After a while, I thought I could hear another moan. But, not from Runt, it was coming from **behind** Runt. After, I stopped sobbing, I began to wonder where that groan came from, and so I walked around Runt and saw a kitten curled up. His fur was almost a sea blue, his chest and muzzle were sky blue. On his forehead was an odd shaped star; 5 points pointing towards the sky and a single larger point in the direction of his nose. As he groaned, his voice was a small child's voice and he seemed to be healthy and not injured. "Hey, look. It's a puppy" said Runt from behind me. Even though his voice was shaky, and sounded like he just woke up from sleep, he startled me and I almost jumped out of my fur. When I turned around, I was overcome with emotion once again, that I began to start crying again. "What's wrong Rita?" Runt asked me. "Nothing Runt, I'm just really happy right now. Can you move?" I responded. I really wanted to get somewhere safe. "Yah, I can. Definitely, definitely can get up." he said as he lifted his body easily. He was strong and all of his wounds were healed. It was incredible. Not wanting what happened to us happen to this little guy, I picked him up, placed him on Runt's back, hopped on to Runt and we strode off into the night.


	2. Chapter 2 Dinner Adventure

**Chapter 2 -Dinner Adventure  
**

Morning arose and I was still feeling tired. We had traveled most of the night and Runt and I couldn't get much sleep. I had almost forgotten that we had an extra member in tow until I heard his little moan. I looked over and the little, blue kitten was waking up. When he lifted his head, I noticed that the star on his forehead had a small four-point star inside the middle of it. The outer star was the same color as his chest and muzzle, the smaller star was white and almost seemed to shine in the sunlight. It was truly an amazing thing to behold. He also had a sky blue patch at the end of his tail, making it look two-toned. Still sleepy, I walked up to the little kitten and asked "Hey there ace. Are you awake?" He just blinked his eyes at me, yawned, and spoke in a small voice that sounded like a child's voice, "Ace? Is that my name?" I looked at him alarmed and confused. It was clear that this kid had lost his memory. What really startled me was when he said, "Where are we mom?" Whoa! Not again. I'm not doing that again. I've already been burned on that. So I decided to make that note clear, "Kid, I'm not your mom. Never have been and never will be. I've been burned on the whole 'mom' business one too many times. And there is **no way** I can be your" and he was gone, already playing on Runt's back. "So, what are we gonna do dad?" That was a little too much.

"OK, **time out!** There is no way we are either of your parents. **He's a dog for crying out loud!** And, I'm not gonna suffer through another heart break by becoming some mysterious kitten's mother." Runt simply looked at me. "What?" I asked. Then the kitten bounded up to me and tackled me in a playful manner. "Come on mom, let's play!" he said to me happily. It actually kind of felt nice to have this kid call me his mom, nor did it seem like he was going to abandon me. Something about this little fur ball made my heart melt. Perhaps it was those icy-blue eyes of his. It kinda reminded me of the cloaked man that saved Runt's life just last night. I decided if this kid wants to call me mom, maybe I'll just think of it as a nickname. And Ace didn't seem like a bad name either for the little kid. "Ok, Ace, time to get off of me." I said. Ace moved his paw off of my stomach, and backed away to give me room to get to my feet. He seemed like a sweet kid, and having him on our travels might not be a bad thing. "Ok, Ace, the first thing I'm gonna do is teach you to hunt for food." I said to him. If he was going to travel with us, at least he needs to learn to pull his own weight. Rather than saying 'ok mom' he simply saluted me and stood there attentive. "Ho boy, I get the feeling that this is gonna be a little annoying." I thought to myself. Then I looked at him and his eyes looked like they had a certain mystic quality to them. "Ok kid, follow me." I finally said.

We walked for some time until I saw a decent restaurant that we could "hunt" in. "Runt, you know what to do." I said. "I do?" Runt replied in confusion. Then he tilted his head to think for a while and then, I think, that dim light bulb clicked on. "I think I do." He finally added. Then he walked up to the back door of the restaurant, waited for us to get as close to the edge of the door as possible, then he slammed his head into the door twice, making a loud knocking sound. The owner of the restaurant opened the door and looked around to find what kicked his door. At that moment, both Ace and I slipped into the restaurant. Recovering from his headache, Runt then began to make a dog's whine to get the owner's attention while we hid. The owner saw Runt, and seemed to feel sorry for the 'poor thing'. While we hid it was needless to say, Runt got his fair-share. After the manager gave Runt some scraps, Ace and I slipped unnoticed through the restaurant's kitchen, ducking in and out of appliances and storage facilities. Near one area where the humans keep the fresh food in these places, I whispered to Ace, "Make sure there is an open window we can escape from." Ace, again simply salutes me and takes off to accomplish his "mission". "That's twice." I thought to myself as I made myself ready to snatch some food. Locating the waist bin, I made an effort to move it as far away as I could. Poor schmuck of a cook probably is looking for it by now.

Again I located there "take out" containers, dropped into the waist bin and filled the container with as much as I could. Then I dropped out as fast as I could, and made my way to where I thought to be the main office until I heard a bunch of humans "awing" and spouting off, "How cute" to something. I peeked around to see Ace in the serving lobby. Humans were tossing him scraps and he was jumping to catch them, back flipping in mid air, and landing on his feet. "How did he do that?" I wondered. Then I heard the owner running up to the lobby, I was pretty sure he was gonna try and chase Ace out of the restaurant. And sure enough, the broom came-a-swinging. Ace ducked and dodged and scrambled around causing all kinds of mayhem. This actually gave me a chance to waltz out the front door (Like one of the restaurant's customers.) Before I slipped out, I called to Ace, "Hey kid. We're leaving." Then, with my container full of scraps, I simply walked out the door. 3 humans saw me just walk out the door of a restaurant with a container full of leftovers. Boy how they must have felt, he, he. Just a minute later, Ace bolted out the door, located me and skedaddled as fast as he could. We met up with Runt and found a safer place to eat our meal, I had to scold Ace a little for scaring me like that, but I then began to laugh at how amusing it was. Ace chose a little bit of salmon with a container of tartar sauce that I smuggled. I even gave him some vegetables, which I had to convince him to eat. Children these days. Me, I had a Salisbury steak and some of the same vegetables I gave to Ace, the ones used to convince him to eat **his** vegetables. It was a good meal even if Ace almost got himself killed in the process.


	3. Chapter 3 Great Power

**Chapter 3 - Great Power**

Night soon fell and we were ready to call it a day. Making sure that we were safe from wild dogs before going to bed, I found myself snuggled up against both Ace and Runt. It felt a little strange, but at the same time comforting. I've never had a better night's sleep than that. That night I dreamed that we were accepted into a home of good human people, people who loved us, and cared for us. I still took care of Ace, but for the most part, we were perfectly happy. I was woken up suddenly by the sound of a human vehicle skidding to a stop. "The signal is coming from over there, sir." One of them said after the sound of car doors being shut all at once. "Are you sure?" said another one. It sounded like their footsteps were coming closer and closer. They turned into the alley way and into my field of vision. They were both wearing black pressed suits with black ties and (despite being in the black of night) dark sunglasses. The men also had in their ears, some kind of device that allows humans to hear other humans from great distances as if they were standing next to them. One of the humans was holding an even stranger device. I can hardly describe it and I have no idea what it could do, however they seemed to be staring at it while they walked. I decided to nudge Ace awake. "Hey kiddo, wake up." I said to him while shaking him awake. "Huh? What? Mom?" he groaned as he tried to wake up. "Shh! Quiet!" I said to him. He noticed me keeping my eye not on him, but on something else.

He looked in the direction I was and saw the humans closing in. "Who are they, mom?" he then asked in a whisper. "I don't know, Ace" was my only response. I was startled when the strange device began to make a strange rapid noise and the men looked up right at us. "There it is!" one of the humans stated pointing his finger at Ace. Then the men began to run toward us. My instincts, told me that they were not here to watch Ace do tricks for scraps. I got up in a defensive stance and began to hiss at the humans. Runt apparently knew they were coming to and he got up to protect Ace as well. In a defensive stance, bearing his teeth and growling ferociously. At first the men backed off in surprise, then the one that was not holding the strange device, reached behind him and pulled what I could identify as a hand gun, and aimed it at Runt. I wasn't gonna let Runt die again, so I got ready to take off to protect him until I saw a bright light-blue light suddenly emanate from behind me. When I looked, I saw the mark on Ace's forehead glowing like a real star. His eyes were also glowing the same way. He had a strange look of either anger or desperation in his face. He muttered something in a language that I couldn't understand. But for those of you who just got curious, it sounded like "Tes Macrinomb." Then suddenly, a beam of light erupted from Ace, Runt and I found ourselves being lifted into the air and I watched as the scene change from the wooded city of Eugene, Oregon to Burbank, California. I have no idea what happened, but we found ourselves in front of the Warner Brothers water tower.

When the confusion had finally gone away, I found that Ace had feinted from his little rescue. I decided to place him on Runt's back and climb the tower ladder to see if the Warners were home, however before I could make the first attempt, We could hear them mocking Ralph the guard as they ran to race him back to the tower and make a new record of 15 escapes in a week without getting caught once. It's been six months since the "Blood Star Incident" and it seemed good to see the Warners, even if they were running away to avoid getting caught as a sport. "Hey guys! Do you mind, I wanna talk to you!" I yelled to them. In a single swoop, they dashed by us, plucked us up, carried us right into the tower, and locked the door behind themselves. As the large, shield-shaped door heavily shut behind us, the Warner siblings began to laugh hard, Wakko had started rolling on the ground he was laughing so hard. After they calmed down a little bit, Yakko wiped a tear from his eye, took a deep breath to help himself stop laughing and then turned to me and said, "Hey Rita. Long time no see. You too Runt." "Hey there guys." Runt responded. "Thanks for 'taking us in'. We were just about to see if you guys were home." I said. "Lucky you." said Dot. "How did you get here anyway? We haven't seen you around lately and last we heard, you guys were in Oregon." she then added after thinking about it. I described our little adventure we had in Eugene. I told them about Ace, the strange men and about how we were suddenly "transported" in front of the tower (however, I decided to leave the whole "momma" part out.) "I can't believe it." Dot finally said when I finished my story. "I had no idea that he was in Oregon. I never actually got to thank that man for helping me during the 'Blood Star Incident'."she sighed. "And you say, he vanished again after saving Runt's life and this kitten was in his place?"

"Pretty much." I said. She hit the nail on the head with that one. Those who were affected by the Blood Star had only hazy memories of the incident, but apparently he helped Dot to save us all from some horrible fate. We talked a while after that until we all heard Ace's groggy voice say, "Mom? Where are we?" The Warners looked back at me. "Mom?" Wakko said to me with a huge grin on his face. "Oh, I'm gonna get plenty of miles out of this one." Yakko said under his breath. I began to blush and looked away and toward the floor of the tower. "Who are these people mom?" Ace added. Dot just waltzed up to Ace and said, "Don't worry Ace. I'm your Aunt Dot. And this is your uncles Yakko and Wakko." That kinda made me feel better. I didn't think that Dot would be willing to share the burden of this kid with me, that is until she snatched him up in a big hug and said, "Aren't you just the cutest thing?" Ace just giggled, and Dot simply melted even more. "Don't spoil him now." I said with a hint of sarcasm. It didn't matter though, Dot was deep in la-la land. "Ok." said Yakko. He opened up the water tower door and then added, "So about the humans that tried to chase you down before." "Yes?" I responded with a little confusion in my voice. "Did they look like that?" I came to the door of the water tower and panicked. This view isn't good for my acrophobia, but sure enough, there was a black vehicle, and two men wearing black suits and sunglasses, making their way to the water tower. First I gulped, then I noticed one of the men holding the same strange device the last pair had. "How many of these guys are there?" I said out loud. Yakko, noticing my worry led me inside the tower and said, "Sibs, it's time to annoy!" Wakko smiled in mischief, and Dot put down Ace, ready to focus on defending her friends again.


	4. Chapter 4 Bad Company

**Chapter 4 - Bad Company**

After the Warners devised a strategy, they stood up suddenly and Yakko announced, "Alright, let's drive them off!" And with that, they zipped out the large shield-shaped door of the Warner Brothers water tower. I was too scared to watch out side, we're up so high. But from what I understood, Yakko popped out of one of the men's pockets and began reading the device and said, "Oh! What is it?" The man in the dark suit was concentrating too much on his device and failed to notice him and responded to Yakko's question. "It's an energy detector that tracks the energy of creatures from beyond our atmosphere." After answering the random question, he finally noticed the strange creature poking out of his pocket and gave a start, then he began to swing at Yakko trying to catch him in a bear hug, but if there is one thing the Warners are good at, it's escaping from impossible places. Yakko dodged the man's arms and bolted away. The two men followed Yakko, running after him, until they turned a corner around one of the studio buildings and ran smack into an iron wall that was placed there from inside Wakko's gag-bag. The two men vibrated after hitting the wall and fell to the ground on their rear ends. Wakko put the wall back into his gag-bag as quickly as he could and ran off. Now it was Dot's turn, she coyly skipped up to the two men, reached behind her back and pulled a bouquet of flowers. She handed the flowers to the men and said, "These are for you, just because you are so handsome." One of the men instinctively accepted the flowers, Dot then skipped away from them and then the flowery surface just quickly fell away revealing a bundle of dynamite in place of the flowers. The two men looked at each other with a look of worry. In a few seconds of their realization, the dynamite detonated. The cartoon detonation sent the two men flying out of the studio parking lot, over the "Big sign" and probably back to where they came from.

Afterward we decided to search the car for any clues as to who they are and why they were chasing us. We found one of the men's wallets. His ID said that his name was Douglass Lynch and he was born in Quantico, Virginia, was about 54 years old, was approximately 5 feet and 9 inches tall, and weighed 214 pounds. Oh and he **had** about $237 in his wallet. (Yoink!) We continued searching the car until we heard over the CB radio another man's voice. "Lynch, Lynch, this is Doctor Wrightman, are you there? Have you secured the alien?" Yakko decided to take this opportunity for another one of his gags. "Uuuuuuuuuhhhh, Lynch isn't here right now. But, if you would like to take a message, he'll be flying in just about..." Then we heard a crashing noise in the back ground, then Yakko finished with, "...now." Then he turned to us and bounced his eyebrows making it seem that much funnier. I couldn't help but chuckle just a little. My happiness ended when that voice responded with, "I don't know who you are, but if you are aiding and imbedding this alien, I won't hesitate to have you all marked as federal criminals. Just give it to me and all will go away." Yakko, looked a little confused as to what to say until he saw the look of worry and fear for Ace on my face. It was pretty apparent that Ace wasn't from our planet, but I have grown attached to him in the short time we have traveled together. "Sorry, no aliens here. And, you can go ahead and present your proposal to our country's leaders. I'm pretty certain that it'll be you behind bars or in a pink, padded room." Then Yakko didn't let the voice respond, he simply switched the CB radio off. That new little bit of news got me a little nervous. I don't know how but something about that man's voice scared the living daylights out of me. With resources like his, it'll be only a matter of time before more men in suits come to take Ace away. Before we left the studio, Yakko decided to place the car on a nearby hill, release the parking brake and let it roll off into the distance. (Right up until it rolled into the express way and got plowed into by a semi truck.) It was time to be off, but we needed a way of traveling without being constantly detected by their strange machines. Wakko suggested we take the sewers to travel. At first I was against it, but after Wakko mentioned that the thick walls of the sewers might block the tracker's frequencies, I couldn't say no. Ace's safety came first.

After traveling the sewers for some time the smell was starting to get to me. And Ace was getting tired even though he mostly rode on Runt's back. "Just a little farther Ace." I said, but it was no use, even I needed to get out of the rancid smell of the sewers. We walked a little while longer until Ace suddenly sat up straight, perked his ears up, jumped off of Runt's back and began to walk near the wall as if he were looking for something. "What's up with him", I thought. Then he placed his paw in a certain area of the wall and the mortar lit up and the bricks began to shift back and forth, and began to reveal an opening that lead to a hidden room. "Well, it's probably better than the sewers." I thought to myself. As we walked into the mysterious room inside the sewer wall, I noticed that there were modern light fixtures and even a light switch near the entrance, but before I could see any more the bricks shifted back into their original position, trapping us inside and leaving us in the dark. "Runt? Come over here." I called. Runt came to me alright, he stepped on my tail and I reaowed at the pain. "Oh, sorry Rita." He said as he realized that was my tail he had stepped on. I didn't dwell on it long, instead I climbed on his back and instructed him to walk in the direction I saw the light switch. I underestimated the distance, however and we both smacked into the wall. I climbed on Runt's head and stretched and felt the wall until I found that light switch. The lights came on as the switch flipped up and light filled the room.

The place was **enormous**. Not only was it bigger than I imagined, it had a combined total of 3 floors, count em'...**3**! The middle floor is where we entered in. It consisted of an entryway, a kitchen, a dining room and a living area complete with television and desktop computer. There was a spiral staircase leading both upstairs to the sleeping quarters, and downstairs to the bathing and laundry room. The sleeping quarters, was a simple setup, there were 2 queen beds, farthest from the stair entrance and across from the beds, stood a bookshelf filled with books of all kinds. The bottom shelf, however looked like it was dedicated to a large set of brown leather –bound books with no titles. Standing beside the bookshelf was a small chest of drawers that were full of clothing, still with that fresh clean scent. The bathroom was a small distance away from the actual staircase and inside the small hallway, in a nook off to the right side, was a washer and dryer set complete with detergent and fabric softener. The bathroom was pretty small with only a bath and toilet, and a sink only a foot to the side. The only thing that was missing was a phone. Before I did anything else, our little family was going to **bathe**. No ifs ands or buts. "Ok kid, its bath time." I said to Ace.


	5. Chapter 5 The Sage's Journal

**Chapter 5 - The Sage's Journal**

I thought that we would have to fight to get a kid his age to bathe, but instead, his curiosity got him in for us. Runt turned the water on in the tub and apparently this place has clean running water. Ace saw the water gushing out of the faucet in the tub and immediately was interested in it. He jumped up on the rim of the tub and tried batting at the water using his paw, but he couldn't reach and when he tried to stretch for it, he slipped into the tub and into the warm water. I took this opportunity to jump in as well. Since the drain was running, and we were small enough, we treated it as a gushing shower. I lathered Ace up with shampoo and rinsed him off as well as I could. By the time we were done, all three of us had the scent of strawberries, and I finally got back that "clean tingling" feeling, you get from not bathing in a while. Afterward, we decided to take a better look around the living area. Runt and Ace looked around the sleeping area and I decided to check out the kitchen. It was what humans call an "island kitchen", there was a preparation counter for chopping and cleaning of the ingredients, an oven with granite stove top used to cook the food, and cupboards that held the utensils for actually eating their meals. As animals, we actually had no use for these things, but since a human-like creature lived here at one point, it made sense to have them. That actually got me curious as to how this area came to be and who lived here. But my stomach was getting curious as to what was in the refrigerator. Finding out about the previous resident will have to wait. The refrigerator was one of those modern ones that are double wide and had a freezer drawer on the bottom.

Opening the refrigerator was no small task. First, I struggled to push an object tall enough to get me to the handle over in to a position that would allow me to swing the door open. There were 3 tall chairs near the prep area, so I used that. Then, I jumped and latched onto the handle and pushed against the other door and opened the one I was clinging to. The door swung open and I let go of the handle and dropped to the floor. I quickly grabbed the chair and pulled it in close to help keep the refrigerator door open. Inside there was exactly what my stomach was craving, 3 cans of fresh tuna. I happily snatched them, bounded over to the prep area, searched the drawers for a can opener, and did my best to open the tuna cans. Suddenly I heard the refrigerator door shut. I turned around and witnessed the chair move back into its original position by itself. A little confused, and now even more curious, I went back to eating my tuna. Afterward, I decided to tell Runt and Ace about this area's strange things until went into the sleeping area and found them curled up on one of the beds, fast asleep. Now would be a good time to see what was in those leather bound books on the bottom shelf. I pulled the one on the far right of the shelf and let it thump on to the ground, using my forepaws to open the cover, on the inside cover page the words "The Sage's Journal – Chronicle #1 – Sage Verion" were clearly written in large, bold print. "Verion?" I thought to myself. Then I flipped the page and began to read some more.

'We came from the stars of other worlds, we who are nameless and abandoned. We do not know how life for us came to be, but we exist all the same. One of us had come from a planet called, Earth and had described a race known the Valkyries from Norse legends. Being Goddesses of Fate, they determined to where the souls of the dead would go. Taking our own "fate" into our own hands, we called ourselves Valkyrions. We, the Valkyrions, had come into being on a most beautiful planet, a planet rich with green grass, tall trees and clear bodies of water. It was then we named the planet, Valkyria, after the legend of the Valkyrie's beauty. I was the first Valkyrian to discover the delicate balance of our world. For the planet had two energies encircling it. Light and dark energies. These energies balanced our world through fortune and sacrifice, love and envy, hatred and joy. Mastering these energies took up over half of my life and I was tilting on the edge of insanity and enlightenment. When I finally came from my abyss, and truly saw the world in pure light, I was then called "The Sage", for Valkyrians are born with magical potential, but mine had become much more balanced, making them one hundred times more powerful. It is my wish that my future descendants and the descendants of the rest of my people come to learn this true sense of peace and enlightenment.' That was simply the first few pages. The rest of the book described him simply going around and teaching as many people his magic and enlightenment as he could. After reading the final page of the book, I yawned and suddenly felt really tired. So, I decided to call it a day and curl up next to Runt and Ace on one of the beds.

I didn't know when I awoke the next morning, it's hard to tell when you can't see the sun, but I know I got a good night sleep. I had noticed that Runt and Ace weren't in the bed anymore, and I began to wonder where they were at. I slowly stood up, stretched my front legs, stretched my back legs, and tried to shake off the rest of my fatigue. After that, I jumped down off of the bed, and looked back as the sheets began to rise, move and drop back to place itself back to its "neat and tidiness". It actually was rather amusing to watch. After having my fun, I walked downstairs to the main area, and saw Runt and Ace. Ace perched on the serving area, eating some deli ham from the "magic refrigerator" and Runt was doing everything he could to drink from the faucet from the sink. It seemed that they weren't at all weirded out by the rooms "cleaning themselves" which was actually a relief, because it helped me avoid trying to explain something I didn't understand myself. Runt looked like he was struggling with turning the faucet on, so I walked up to one of the chairs and jumped up onto the seating part of it, jumped onto the serving counter, walked across the counter, jumped across the gap and landed on Runt's head. "Oh, hey Rita." He said with that silly, clueless smile of his. "Need some help?" I said with a smidge of cockiness. "Definitely, definitely could use some help." He responded. With a quirky little smile on my face, I bounced off of his head, and landed near the sink. I then turned the cold tap valve and the water began to flow out of the upside down "U" shaped faucet. Runt then happily drank form the flowing water. When he was done drinking the water, I turned the faucet off and we saw cloths and sponges wipe up the puddles of water that spilled on the counter and dripped to the floor. Again, it was very amusing to watch.

Runt and Ace decided to turn on the television and turn it to a cartoon channel. Cartoons aren't what they used to be. I decided to go back upstairs and read another one of those books. This time, I picked the second to last book to see if the pages held any different of a story. This book was named "The Sage's Journal – Chronicle 11 – Sage Vuloc".

'I was a mere 16 moons when the elders told me that I was destined for the sage's powers. It was a terrible burden for a boy so young. I do not know how the elders know who possesses the sage's spirit, but I must trust them. I began my training for the sage's tests. The elders taught me one by one different magic spells for use during the tests, the first elder taught me defensive spells, the second taught me attack spells, the third elder taught me spells for everyday use such as how to create magic space and how to decorate it.' "So that's what this place is, magic space." I thought to myself peeling my eyes away from the book to look around at my mysterious surroundings. I brought my gaze back to the book, flipped the pages forward to until a certain entry attracted my attention.

'It was the day of the sage's tests, and I had butterflies in my stomach. I was led to an empty arena that looked like one of the many coliseums our ancestors had built around our world. In the arena, one of the elders came in from one of the entrances and walked up to me with a sword. He held the sword up to me. It was a single bladed curved sword, I think it was called a "katana" on earth, the swords scabbard was ebony black with a gold trim at both ends, the scabbard's entry point opened up with a kind of "door" that allows a creature of much smaller stature than I to draw the blade with ease. The blade itself was a silvery color and the hand guard was of gold color and shaped similar to a circle except for the four points making it seem like a rounded square. The handle was ebony black with gold colored rings near the hand guard and the end of the handle. At the butt end of the handle was what seemed like a half of a large pearl capping it all off. I knew this sword, this sword was the one used by the Sage Valmera, the second sage and one of my ancestors.

The elder motioned for me to take the sword, and said "The tests you will take may seem strange to you at first, but if you are to pass them, you will take them all seriously." And then he passed the sword called the Valkyrie Star to me, turned around and walked back toward the entrance he had come in through and exited the arena. Standing there, a little stunned, I barely noticed my shadow growing from simply my shadow to an exact copy if my very image. I did notice however, there was something about him that seemed different. Something about him seemed evil. I passed it off as a case of nerves, and allowed my copy to speak. "I'm sure you don't have a clue as to what is going on." He said rather rudely.


	6. Chapter 6  The Sage's Tests

**Chapter 6 - The Sage's Tests**

"Excuse me?" was all I could say in my shock. "And who are you?" I asked him. He responded with, "I am you, young Vuloc. Your other side." I didn't know what to think... this man came from my shadow, what was I supposed to think? I had no idea that my "other side" would be so different from myself. I stood there simply dumbfounded until he spoke again. Only this time his voice darkened and it seemed that his true evil had come out. "I hope you can learn to see things my way." He said. And with that he walked away in the direction that the elder had exited. I snapped out of my confusion just in time to realize that I needed to try and keep up with my "other side". I had decided to call him Coluv, the Valkyrian naming style that means "other" by simply spelling the original name backward. It normally is used in the naming of identical twins.

Immediately, I was confronted with the first test. Two of the elders confronted both Coluv and I and handed us a piece of paper each. Then the elders said to us, "The personality that comes back with the most items by sun down tomorrow passes the test of wisdom. And with that I read my piece of paper. It was a riddle that was supposed to lead me to a specific place and to a specific item. The riddle read, "In the afternoon shade of the great tree lies the fruit of youth." After thinking about it for a while, I remembered a large apple tree that I use to take shade naps in. So, I headed there for my first clue. When I had gotten there, it was early afternoon and the shade from the tree was in the exact same position as it was when I took those naps in my childhood. And in the space where I used to lean against the trunk, was a young ripe apple. As I picked up the apple I noticed an acorn on the top of it instead of the stem. What did that mean? Was it the next clue? I decided to look around the area for an acorn tree. Unfortunately, all of the acorn trees I could find were bare and had nothing growing on them. So where did the acorn come from?

I went back to the original look of the acorn. It was sitting on the crown of the apple in place of the stem. "Perhaps the acorn isn't a representation of the plant, but a representation of something else." I thought to myself. So I headed back to the apple tree.

When I got there, I had to remember the way the clue was presented, the acorn inside the crown of the apple. Thinking about what the acorn could have represented, "The acorn is a seed, a seed that grows into new life and becomes an acorn tree. What if the acorn didn't represent the tree from which it came from, but represented 'new life'?" I thought. "On top of the apple, could mean at the top of the tree?" So, I climbed the tree the best that I could, climbing to the top of an enormous apple tree. I didn't actually reach the top of the tree, but the crown of the trunk where is separated into branches that spanned toward the sky. In the nook of the crown, sat a nest, it was abandoned, but still was a representation of the birth of whatever creature lived here before. Inside the abandoned nest was a scroll. Opening the scroll, I began to read, 'I know not where we came from, only that we exist. The fact that we do exist, gives us the right to live.' In a flash, I knew where this came from. And it was a long way to that destination. It belonged in the library of the easternmost testing arena. Better get moving.

It was dark by the time I had reached the arena. Before I returned the scroll, I decided to take a nap in the library (What better place to sleep, eh?) When morning arose, I was awoken by colorful rays of sun piercing through the stain glass windows of the eastern arena's library. I sat up, rubbed my eyes, stretched and caught the most amazing sight I have ever seen. The windows looked like they were filled with the energy from the sun as they glowed brightly in various colors and shapes representing the third sage's journey through the land to collect his wisdom.

After, marveling at the windows I suddenly remembered the scroll I had recovered from the apple tree. Clutching it in my hand, I wandered around to find out where the scroll belonged. After many hours of searching, I had finally found where it belonged, and where the scroll used to be was a smaller scroll. Removing the smaller scroll, and placing back the scroll used for my test, I opened it up and read its words. "You test is near complete, we hope you learned much. To give your 'other' his defeat, bring an answer as such. 'An apple, an acorn, a scroll, and you. What in common have these things?' Bring your answer to where it began." "Another riddle?" I thought in frustration. Despite my frustration, the last part was easy to figure out: The arena where I received my first clue, and where Coluv was born. But the first part was not easy to figure out. "What **do** I have in common with an apple, an acorn, and a scroll that tells me someone else's thoughts on our existence?" As I asked myself that a thought came to me. If our existence is reason for us to live than, the apple must "exist", and so must the acorn and the scroll as well. I had my answer, and was ready to face the elder.

It was dusk by the time I had reached the elder, and I was tired and hungry. I noticed that Coluv was not around, "Had he already finished his part of the test, or had he gotten lost?" I wondered. I walked up to the elder and said, "Elder, I have my answer to the final riddle." "Very good, Vuloc. What have you discovered? What do the four objects described in the riddle have in common?" He responded. "Each of these things exists. We do not how they came into existence, but they do exist." Then from behind me, I heard a dark menacing voice say, "And who is it that determines whether or not things should exist?" It was Coluv, simply walking toward us. "Why do things simply 'exist'? There should be some perfect being to govern this 'existence'." He then added with a smirk on his face. The elder simply responded with, "That is one of life's mysteries. One we discover at the end of our lifespan. Existence is not for any of **us** to govern." Coluv growled at the elder and turned away. "Do you have an answer to your riddle?" the elder then asked him. "No, I do not Elder Valra." was his response. "Then I must declare that Vuloc be the victor of the test of wisdom." The elder said as he looked at me.

The next day, I met Coluv in the same arena. The elder wasn't there yet to present us with the next task, and it was awfully quiet until Culov spoke to me. "Did you think about what I said yesterday?" he asked. "What do you mean?" I said confused. "Perfection, it alone gives the right to govern existence." He finally said. He took a little time before he added, "And **I** am perfect." The statement sent chills down my spine. Perfect? What made him perfect? And what is perfection anyway? I didn't have time to answer any of these questions when I heard the elder enter the arena. I stood at attention and tried not to let Coluv's words distract me.

The next test was the test of valor. The elders simply sent us out into the world to make a collection of good deeds. It sounded easy enough, but when I went out I noticed Coluv traveling in a different direction. "Where is he going?" I thought to myself. My curiosity got the better of me, so I followed him. I tailed him for what seemed like hours, until he stopped at the gates of the most forbidden place in all of Valkyria. The Tomb of the Dark Ones, a desolate stone building that hadn't seen life in hundreds of years. Coluv looked at the gates and grinned very sinister-like. In fact I was terrified of him when he smiled like that. He pushed the gates open and walked in. I don't know why, but there were guards near the front doors of the stone building, they were guarding something. They, however, didn't stand a chance against Coluv. He incinerated every one of the guards with fireball spells and even summoned a dimensional rift and sent 3 of the guards to the Valkyrian blue sun. My gut was churning, "What could he want so badly?" I thought to myself as I followed him deeper into the tomb. After a few hours, and several traps, I followed him into an empty chamber. The chamber was almost 30 earth yards wide and 30 earth yards long, with rectangular holes in the walls numbering in the thousands. In the center of the chamber was a stone table with a sword placed on a stand in the center. The sword had a crimson scabbard and a glass looking handle that held a spherical blood red jewel.


	7. Chapter 7 Rita's Revelation

**Chapter 7**** - Rita's Revelation**

After witnessing my "other side" commit such heinous crimes during the test of valor, I decided to add the first item on my list, "I had turned in a criminal." I ran back to the elders as fast as I could, but when I arrived, there was Coluv, explaining to the elders that the "Armageddon Blade" had been stolen. It was clear that he had used a teleportation spell to beat any witnesses to the punch. He explained in decent detail, how he tried to stop the thief, but failed. Somehow, he even had burn marks on his body indicating that he had been involved in a magic struggle. If I hadn't seen him with my own eyes, I would have believed him as well. When, the elders asked him for the identity, I was certain that he would frame me for murder and theft. "I couldn't see his face, he was wearing a red demon mask." he said instead. What was I supposed to do? It would have been my word against his, and I had less proof than he. A week had passed and my list was 13 deeds long. By the time Coluv had returned, his was 27 deeds long. Half of them were lies, no doubt. But, I still had no proof.

Three days had passed and there were no sign of the elders until midday of the fourth day. "The third and final test will be the test of combat." he said. "This is not a fight to the death however; it is the first one to assimilate the other." ASSIMILATE? What had gotten into the elder? It was when I took a closer look at his eyes that I realized what was going on. The elder's eyes were glazed and glassy, meaning that Coluv had set this whole thing up by placing the elder under a mind puppet spell. I panicked and ran away to the space launch area to get as far away from my insane half as fast as I could, taking with me the Valkyrie Star Sword.

We had conducted space travel many times and I even knew how it was done, however this was different. I wasn't going for experimental purposes or for scientific or magical study. I was running away. I didn't care where I went just as long as I could get away. Panicking and confused, I activated the launce sequence to one of the emergency escape pods rather than activating one of the giant ships. The emergency pod may have a tracking device installed, but they don't log destination coordinates, as long as I could escape. Before the pod launched, I looked back at my home world. "What am I doing?" I asked myself. But I didn't have time to have that question answered, the pod launched and I fled my home. As the pod lifted into the air, I witnessed Coluv thrust the Armageddon Blade into one of the technicians and continue on killing every creature standing in front of him. "What have I done?" I asked myself. And the pod launched off into space. (For those who are confused as to how an escape pod can lift off like that, even our technology is powered by our spells. I had cast a powerful launch spell that flung the pod into space.)'

"Mom, dad and I are gonna go out and catch some fresh air." Ace said to me as my concentration was shattered. "Huh? Oh. Don't be out too long, and stay clear of those strange humans, alright?" I responded. "Ok mom." He said as he bounced up and down in his excitement. Then the two of them walked to the magical entrance to the "magic space", and Ace placed his paw against the wall. The bricks shifted and parted creating the opening and the two waltzed out of the lair and back into the world. I suppose it is natural to want fresh air every once in a while. I decided that I would meet them later after I finish this book. I turned my eyes back to the book, and used my right paw to flip the pages forward to see if there were any other entries that would interest me. I came across one entry that looked familiar. It was the entry depicting part of the Blood Star Incident and how Vuloc had healed Dot and trained her to use the Valkyrie Star Sword. And the next few entries described how he witnessed Runt being mauled and how he came and helped us and used a forbidden spell known as the "Spell of Second Life", it also described that the natural punishment for using the spell was that most of a Valkyrian's magic would be locked away and the Valkyrian's body would transform onto a visage of the last creature he saw (aside from the dead creature) before using the spell. Then it came to me, a cat. Vuloc had become Ace, after using the Spell of Second Life to save Runt. I needed to let Runt know about this, so I ran to the opening and placed my paw on it. The bricks moved and shifted away and toward the side opening the doorway and revealing the suited men and one wearing a white lab coat. Before I could run back into the magic space, they stormed in and one of them grabbed me by the scruff of my neck. Dropping the book, and making several attempts to scratch at the man, I was helpless. Then I was stuffed into a bag. I could hear the men rummaging through the entire place until one of them called out, "I found something!" It was pretty obvious that they had fund the Sage's Journals and were gathering them up.

END OF BOOK 2


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